This restaurant fines customers who waste food

Americans throw away half their food every year — and why not? There’s no immediate consequence. (Just the slow diminishment of the natural resources that keep us all alive.) But this Japanese restaurant has a genius fix for that problem: It fines customers who don’t finish their bowl of rice with salmon roe.

On its menu, Hachikyo clearly states that failure to consume every last bit of their signature dish — a bowl of rice topped with all-you-can-eat salmon roe — will result in a surcharge which will be donated to the fishermen who made the food possible.

“All-you-can-eat” seems like something of a misnomer here. It’s more like “all-you-must-eat.”

It’s harsh, but this policy is both eco-friendly and humanitarian. Not only is overfishing a problem worldwide, but those fishermen risked dangerous conditions to bring hungry people this insane luxury. Really, it’s the most sane restaurant policy possible, and we recommend wholesale adoption across the country. At the very least, Michael Bloomberg can probably pull off making this a law New York restaurants have to adhere to.